Reject your heart of stone, Get a new living model!

Today I am beginning a new series on the heart. There are at least 100 scriptures that focus on the heart, so it must be of great importance to God. I found there are scriptures that talk about God’s Work in our hearts, the true nature of our hearts and what a transformed heart looks like. The materials I have show the most ‘popular’ verses- people actually voted, so perhaps they were either most helpful, most revealing or most convicting. I love it that the most loved verses deal with God’s Work in our hearts. It gives us a good place to begin.

Ezekiel 36:26 is one of the key verses in this summary of prophesies God gave to the children of Israel in Ezekiel 36. Look at what God said He woulddo: 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name… 23 I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations…24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.30 I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.”

God said He would do all these things to and for His believing children. He would vindicate or show the holiness of His name to them and the world, He would bring them back to the land (they were in Babylon in exile at the time), He would cleanse them, He would give them a new heart, He would put His spirit within them, He promised them long life in the land and great fruitfulness. As I read this list of promises God gave them, I realized that some were fulfilled then with their return to the Promised Land but many were fulfilled much later. Jesus came and brought cleansing and healing through His death and resurrection. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell the believers through faith because of Jesus’ work on the cross. Israel is again a nation and is amazingly fruitful. It is a wonder in the desert and blooms as God intended under their care.

Through Jesus’ Work on the cross and resurrection from the dead, we can live forgiven and be filled with His Holy Spirit. We can have the new heart that God desires for us. He says in verse 26, He will give us a new heart. This heart will be soft, pliable and alive with faith and devotion to Him. With this new heart, we can live for him. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” We are new creatures with a new heart through Christ. Do you feel like you have a heart of stone? Are you hard-hearted towards others, unfeeling about the difficulties in your life and their lives, do you shut out God? Or do you claim a new heart through Jesus that is open, willing, compassionate and loving towards those in your life?

Claim your new heart in Jesus today and watch God transform you and give you a heart of flesh and feeling and take away your heart of stone that was filled with sinful self-desires. Turn to Jesus and He will transform your heart.